2015 Winning Edge Holiday Tournament champions. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)
AKRON – Twice is nice. For the second year in a row the NorthWood boys basketball team took home top prize in the Winning Edge Holiday Tournament. The Panthers downed Fairfield Friday night and came back to Tippecanoe Valley High School Saturday night to hand a decisive loss to the Vikings on their home court in the title game.
The Panthers used a huge second half and a great night from tourney MVP Braxton Linville to upend the Vikings 71-44.
Linville was rightfully named MVP of the four team field and the junior really epitomized an MVP caliber player with his performance in the first half against Valley. Linville hung 21 of the Panthers 34 first half points by himself. Everytime NorthWood went down the court, Linville found away to create points or at least opportunities for his offense.
While any number of baskets could be selected to highlight Linville’s performance, the most prominent one came just before the halftime buzzer. Linville took advantage of a poor offensive possession by Valley and drained a three-pointer to put his team up 34-25 at the break. The shot may have only given the Panthers a nine-point lead, it also seemed to take Valley’s momentum away in the process.
“It should’ve been a four-point game at halftime,” stated Valley head coach Bill Patrick. “We made two big mental mistakes at the end of each quarter. We rushed a shot at the end of the first, and they ended up getting two points. We did basically the same thing to end the half and Braxton Linville hit that three. If we take care of the ball, that’s five points we don’t give up.”
The shot from Linville was just the beginning of Valley’s troubles. Linville cooled down and score just four points in the second half, but teammate Dakiyron Fox heated up and scored 12 points in the final two quarters. Fox’s effort helped fuel a 24-11 third quarter domination for the Panthers.
“I thought we played really well in the first half,” Patrick said. “I think we played about as well as we could’ve against this team. We had some illnesses this week, that may have played a part in how we played. You just have to hope that if you see them in the sectional that you play more consistent.”
Fox finished with 16 points while Linville led all scorers with 25 points. Both players, along with teammate Vincent Miranda, were named to the all-tournament team.
Alex Thacker also received all-tourney honors for the Vikings. Thacker led Valley with 21 points in Saturday’s game, but he was the only Vikings to score in double-digits. Chandler O’Connor finished with eight points for Valley. Gavin Bussard and Alec Craig led the team with four rebounds apiece.
“I felt that we played pretty well in the first half and Braxton Linville’s three at the end of the second quarter was a good lift going into halftime,” began NorthWood head coach Aaron Wolfe. “We were able to get in transition and get some easy baskets to start the third quarter. That really helped to separate the score.”
NorthWood moves to 8-1 on the season and will host Northern Lakes Conference foe Wawasee Friday night at the Panther Pit. Valley falls to 5-4 and will look to get things back on track Friday when it hosts Northfield in a Three Rivers Conference contest.
In addition to Linville, Miranda, Fox and Thacker, Fairfield’s Joe Line and Brock Goeglein and Rochester’s Alec Holland also were named to the all-tournament team.
